Game Day Thread: Bruins @ Habs

Tonight, the Bruins travel to the land of maple syrup & cheese to play the Montreal Canadiens.
Last Bruins game, they were played the Penguins at home. While missing some key players – Bergeron, Chara, Carlo, McAvoy – one would expect the insanely talented Penguins skaters would skate circles around the boys in black, but aside from one early – and intimidating – Penguin shift, the Bruins were the stronger team for the first 25 minutes of play. However, in spite of Pittsburgh bringing their 3rd-string goalie (Jarry) the bruins were unable to turn their opportunities into points for the first period. Evgeny Malkin scored in the game’s first power play but within a few minutes, Jake Debrusk dropped a shot into the net and we had a tie game.

The teams were fairly evenly matched overall, each recording 37 shots on goal in the contest. The officials were sparing with the whistles, sending only two men to the box all evening (both Bruins). There was a near-goal from David Backes, but it was waived off. One might consider that as petty as stealing candy from a child, but it happened nonetheless. It appears that none of the on-ice officials saw the puck go into the net, and cameras did not show it clearly in the net until a stick pushed it and Jarry’s leg pad over the line – which may have been disqualifying in the eyes of Wes Macauley.

The game would still be tied at the end of 60 minutes, necessitating overtime. This time, the Bruins would come out on top with this nifty sequence:

Also of note, rookie Jakub Forsbacka-Karlsson was promoted to top-line center for the Penguins game, and neither he nor linemate David Pastrnak logged any shots on goal. It appears that Brad Marchand was the only one who was able to get through to the net, recording an impressive 7 shots.

Let’s do some lines.
The Bruins have called up P-Bruin forward Colby Cavé.
This morning, rookie Jakub Forsbacka-Karlsson was centering the Marchand-Pastrnak line and will do so tonight.

“Today we’re gonna move him up…his response was very good when we moved him up in Detroit, played harder – literally broke two or three teeth but kept on playing.” – Bruce Cassidy

Fluto Shinzawa reports that Anders Bjork and Steve Kampfer will be healthy scratches tonight, being necessary to handle nacho duty on the 9th floor.

And concussion-brothers Charlie McAvoy and Urho Vaakanainen were still red-shirted, and will not play. John Moore, sidelined since last Wednesday after the Colorado game, was skating, and is expected to return.

Bruins Forward Lines

Brad Marchand

#23 Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson

David Pastrnak

Danton Heinen

David Krejci

Jake DeBrusk

Joakim Nordstrom

Colby Cave, man

Noel Acciari

Chris Wagner

Sean Kuraly

David Backes

Bruins Defensive pairs

Matt Grzelcyk

Kevan Miller

Torey Krug

John Moore

#79 Jeremy Lauzon

#75 Connor Clifton

Bruins Goaltending

#40 Tuukka Rask

(#41 Jaroslav Halak)

Tonight’s opponent are the Habs. They are running at a record of 11-7-5, placing them just a hair behind the Bruins in the standings. (h/t Daily Faceoff and Montreal Gazette beat writer JF Chaumont ):